


Sweet Sounds of Guitar Strings

by drrrs



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Indie Music, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Music, F/M, Fluff, Indie Music, M/M, Multi, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, allura owns the small record company, and along comes keith with a gifted voice that melts lance's heart, and he raps about cats, and he tries to make it in with his sweet raps, and some conflicts too, it's going to be pretty fluffy, lance hunk and pidge work there but lance works intern, lance is basically shiro's assistant, maybe???, pidge produces a lot of electronic tracks and they are all video gamey and vaporwave sound lol, shiro is the manager, so hunk is the tech and equipment guy but is really good at percussion, so the whole voltron team is an indie music record company, so this may or may not turn into a k drama at some point, there will be a lot of jam sessions, this fic exists because of k indie and k dramas
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-17
Updated: 2016-12-17
Packaged: 2018-09-09 08:51:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8884669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drrrs/pseuds/drrrs
Summary: Voltron Records is on the brink of shutting down due to not having enough sales over producing the same eclectic synthpop sound. The problem isn't their music, it's getting a new audience to recognize a variety of different talents the small music company can offer. Shiro gives his team a task to come up with a new identity for the dying record label. Lance sets off to get coffee to figure out a way to save the company that he loves when he hears the most beautiful voice he's ever heard accompanied by the soft guitar strings on the streets. He approaches the lovely sound to come across a boy his age with a hidden vocal talent that takes Lance's breath away. He knew this boy was going to save Voltron Records, but he didn't know that the boy with the warm soothing voice was also going to change his life forever. aka my attempt to do an Indie Music AU that may or may not turn into a Kdrama





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hi I'm here to write an indie music au and see how it goes. Forgive me as I actually don't know a lot of English spoken indie music and only Korean ones orz Also shoutout to @lycoria for her support and help as well as being an awesome friend for encouraging me to write this fic. You should also read some of her stuff too especially if you're a sheith fan!

Pidge groaned for 29th time this afternoon. She threw her headphones across the sound booth with a loud thud against the bulletproof glass windows causing Lance to jump from the other side of the recording booth. Still infuriating, she grabbed the microphone that connected to Lance’s headphones. “Lance I told you so many times I’m going to throw up these words on you. NO. FREESTYLING.”

Lance threw his arms up. “Hey you asked for a collab! You asked for my interpretation and I wanted to give my spin on it-”

“Yeah but this song is about being on a journey for happiness, NOT ABOUT YOUR STUPID CAT. READ WHAT’S ON THE GODDAMN STAND”

“BUT SHE MAKES ME HAPPY!” Lance screamed into the recording microphone that made Hunk yank the headphones out of his head. “ISN’T THAT WHAT THE SONG IS ABOUT? ABOUT HAPPINESS?”

Pidge made a high pitched groan. “Lance I swear to god if you call yourself a ‘motherfuckin cat daddy’ again I’m going to burn all your weeb shit.”

“THEY ARE NOT WEEB SHIT THEY ARE HIGH QUALITY OF ART. WHICH HALF OF THEM ARE YOURS BY THE FUCKING WAY.”

An exasperated Shiro came behind from Pidge and nudged her off her seat. She let out some breaths and stepped out to scream at the wall. The manager leaned into the microphone and spoke softly in a somber tone. “We have been working on this for about two days and we have nothing done. We are only stuck on Pidge’s samples and that’s all we have. I think…” He paused to suck in his lips. “We need to bring everyone back.”

“A break?” asked Hunk excitedly who looked so happy to be done with this process.

Shiro shook his head. “Not exactly. A meeting.”

Lance swung the headphones over the music stand and walked out of the sound booth. Pidge rolled her eyes as soon as she made contact with him and followed after Shiro into the lounge room. Usually when Shiro called the rest of the staff for a meeting, it meant an idea for a new project or some venue announcement. But on the look of Shiro’s face, it probably meant neither. And it probably wasn’t going to be good news either.

The staff lounge was significantly brighter than the dark dense studio. Instead of foam covered tiles on every wall, the walls were bright with posters of the colorful music festivals around town. Lance squinted his eyes to adjust to the brightness from the florescent lighting. He touched his way to a lime green chair as he took his seat. Hunk and Pidge already made their place at the comfortable plush orange sofa. Shiro grabbed another lime green chair from the dining tables where they would usually eat at lunch. He spun it around and leaned against the back of the chair to set his chin down. “Alright Team Voltron, I think we need a talk.”

“That Lance shouldn’t try to come up with stupid raps about cats?” Pidge inquired.

Lance felt offended. “Uh excuse me. Like I said earlier, the song was about happiness so I am only rapping from the heart man.” He pounded his chest to show how passionate he was.

“Lance I am not going to release a song about cat daddies under my name!”

“No one knows your real name Pidge! You’re literally p dove everywhere! Unless I share your darkest secret like that time on Valentine’s Day-”

“SHUT UP LANCE OR I’LL CALL OUT ON YOU EVERYWHERE FOR HAVING A WANTING TO BE EMINEM’S BOYFRIEND IN MIDDLE SCHOOL! FACEBOOK, TWITTER, BANDCAMP-”

“THAT’S ENOUGH!” Shiro roared. Everyone stopped in their tracks as they all got heated up in the atmosphere. Pidge and Lance slumped back in their seats while a whimpering Hunk tried to ease himself to sit up straighter. Shiro sighed into his prosthetic plastic hand. “Can you guys please go without killing each other for ONE MINUTE?” It was so rare to see Shiro yelling in rage. And when he was angry it suddenly made Lance felt like the world was surreal.

Lance nodded quickly and gulped. Pidge sunk even more into the couch. It looked like the couch was enveloping all over Pidge’s tiny body. “Yes sir,” she muttered. Then she glared at Lance. “I want my limited edition of the 10th anniversary Evangelion Blu Ray 4K back by the way.”

Shiro cleared his throat and glared at her. She flashed a quick innocent smile. Shiro then turned his attention to Hunk then Lance. “I think it is safe to say that we need a change. I'm talking about our sound.” He turned to Pidge who looked worried as she sat up straighter. “I'm not saying you're bad Pidge you're doing great and people love your mixes and samples.” Pidge beamed proudly. “But that's thing. It only attracts one audience: the trap, electronic, eclectic group. The people that find nostalgia from old anime and video games. And that's not a lot of people sadly. So far we technically only have one artist.”

“Uh what about me?” Lance raised his arms up looking offended. “I bring a lot to the table too! I bring the team together with my sick raps.”

“Okay but Lance you've only released one song and it wasn't even a full song from you. You were only featured under my name.” Pidge leaned and rested her chin on her knuckle. “It was a Fly Me to the Moon cover and you kept repeating ‘yeah, yeah, to the moon bro.’”

“Yeah but who brought you to the front page of Bandcamp?” Lance pointed at his proud face. “Boom! This guy! Right here!”

“YOU GUYS!” Shiro roared again. Everyone quickly retreated back to their small stature again letting the seats swallow them up. Shiro rolled his eyes and passed his prosthetic hand over his exhausted face. “There is nothing wrong with having just one artist in this studio. Or two.” He glanced at Lance briefly. “The thing is that we need to bring more people to get recognition of our brand. We are an independent record label after all. We only get our revenue from digital sales and venues, you all know that.” There was a pause that made the air tense. Lance wasn't sure what was going to happen but his heart sank when it did. “The other thing that I'm telling you all this is because…” Lance felt his toes curl in anticipation and anxiety for the news. “We are going bankrupt.”

Hunk looked like he was on the verge of tears. “What?” He squeaked with a whimpering choke.

“Yeah.” Shiro looked down with the saddest look Lance has ever seen on him for the past three years that he has known him. “We are already surpassing all of our bills and if we don't pay it all off in a month. We….” Lance knew he didn't want to say it. “Could be gone for good.”

“So now what do we do?” Pidge exclaimed. “Do you want me to make more songs because you know I can do that without sleeping!!”

“That's not the solution Pidge.” Shiro shook his head but he seemed appreciated of the offer. “But thank you. I think what we need is a new sound, to bring in a new crowd.” He then sat up straighter and tried to make a small smile. “Which is the next task I need you all to do.” He pointed at the three young coworkers. “All of you need to find a way to redefine our brand. Come up with a new identity to represent us.”

“And how do we do that?” Asked Hunk.

Shiro stood up and pursed his lips. “You guys are artists.” Hunk raised his eyebrows. “Yes Hunk even though you're a tech guy you are considered an artist too.” Hunk giggled in response. “You guys come up with ideas on how to save our company. Any idea will help.” Shiro looked at the kitschy neon clock on the wall. The purple lit hands showed that it was 3:24. “Let's all come back and discuss some ideas at 7. So we also have time to eat dinner too.” He stared at his coworkers who didn't seem to budge after his speech. “Go ahead guys you know where to find me if you have questions.” He nodded at them to send them all on their way and retreated back to his office down the hall.

Pidge sprung herself off of the couch. “Well, I think I'm gonna go and write a bunch of songs in my man cave.” She paused. “And probably eat potato chips… and cry…. because writer’s block…. is a real thing yo….”

“Good luck Pidge,” said Hunk waving his hand. Pidge saluted. “Smell ya later losers.” She trotted down to the hallway into her office which was next to Shiro’s.

Hunk clapped his hands and sighed. “Man this is really serious isn't?”

Lance took out his phone to read the front page of Reddit. “Yeah man. It's like the fate of our own company is in our hands.” He looked up from his phone frowning. “And I just started working here three months ago! This is the best job experience I've ever had!”

“Uh correction,” said Hunk waving his finger, “this is the only job you've ever had.”

Lance growled at him and retreated back to his phone. “Of course you of all people would know everything about me. ”

“And who got you that job?” Hunk crossed his arms and wiggled his eyebrows at Lance playfully.

Lance rolled his eyes and playfully punched his best friend in the arm. “Yeah yeah I love you too Hunk.” Deciding there was nothing to read on the internet, Lance shoved his phone in his back pocket. “So what are you going to do on this assignment?”

Hunk shrugged. “I don't know… but I think I'm going to go heat up some pizza.” He stood up from the couch and shuffled his way to the bright yellow counter. He opened up the staff fridge and brought out a plate of leftover pizza slices stacked on top of each other wrapped in cling wrap. He turned his head to Lance. “Want some? Shay made it the other night so it’s still pretty fresh.”

Lance wrinkled his nose and got out of his seat. Usually he would accept it but he decided that he wouldn’t join in with Hunk no matter how good his girlfriend’s cooking was. Right now, Lance had other things to worry about. “I’m good man thanks. Actually I’m kind of craving some PSL so I’m gonna go over to Starbucks and come back.”

“PSL?”

“Pumpkin spice latte. It's fall. Everyone's gotta have it.”

“What are you a white girl?”

Lance put his hands on his hips with one side protruding out. “Girl don't make me bring out my inner Regina George because you know I will.”

Hunk laughed as he put the pizza slices in the microwave. If anyone could recite the entire Mean Girls script with a full-on performance, it would be Lance. “Alright queen bee. See you then. Don't get lost.”

Lance grabbed his coat hanging on the wall hangers and headed down the hall. He could hear from Pidge’s office beeping samples and a low bass drum track. She was probably frantically trying to compose a new song. Her room sounded like a muffled party was going on in comparison to Shiro’s silent office next to hers. Lance shared an office with Hunk since Hunk was the one that brought Lance into Voltron Records after a year of desperate job searching. It was always nice to have a best friend that was already in the music production industry. Even if the company they worked at wasn’t a big name like Galra Music, Lance still enjoyed the last semester of working under Shiro’s guidance as a music producer.

Lance opened the door and breathed in the cold fall air that greeted his chapped lips and vulnerable pink nose. For a skinny guy like him he was more prone to the piercing coldness than the heat. He huddled his jacket with his hands in his pockets to pull in more body heat. With the daylight saving time recently changed, Lance noticed the sun was already setting lower than it was in August. Its golden rays peaked behind the black wet trees.

Lance continued to walk down the red and brown leaf covered walkway to downtown. It seemed no matter what time Lance was out, there were always people around. Of course it would bring many people around, tourists and locals alike, to visit the small cute shops. There were many coffee shops, souvenir shops, bars, and boutiques selling organic and original items. Although it was still September, small twinkling Christmas lights were wrapped around the borders of the shops and the lampposts. As hipster as this town seemed to be, Lance had decided it was an alright place to live even though it may not be his style.

He found his favorite Starbucks just down the end of the street from his studio. The smell of cinnamon and coffee wafted in the warm atmosphere. Still having his heart strung on his precious pumpkin spice latte he stood his place in line behind a gushing high school couple who won’t stop touching each other. He glazed over the cute fall leaf decorations glossed over the counter top to the baristas taking frantic coffee orders.

He noticed one of the male baristas around his age had a small black ponytail tied over his pale neck. He called out people’s names as he pushed the drinks gently across the pick up counter. Lance first noticed the boy was of East Asian descendant and his clean skin and sweet smile that somehow made his heart skip a beat. He coughed nervously but it ended up being too loud for the couple to give him disgusted looks. One of the cute barista’s coworkers came up to him and tapped him on the shoulder. It was hard to hear the conversation because of the cafe’s noise level. They gave an exchange of nods and the cute boy smiled at him and left his post.

Lance didn’t realize how long he stood there staring at the attractive boy when the cashier kept yelling “Next!” at him followed by a long line of snickering customers behind him.

* * *

 

Lance sipped his grande latte and walked out of the coffee shop with the cold wind blowing in his face again. It was nice to have the warm contrast of his sweet drink against the icy wind. The day was beginning to grow darker making his cue to probably go back to the studio.

He heard something in the distance that sounded like the strumming of a nylon string guitar. It had a jazzy bop to it. Lance never heard street performers in his whole three months here in downtown. A beautiful voice accompanied the guitar. It was a man’s voice that sounded soft but strong.

Lance followed the sound of the voice to the alleyway next to the Starbucks. A couple of young girls were huddling and giggling at the street performer who was sitting with his back against the coffee shop wall. To Lance’s surprise, it was the attractive barista he saw minutes ago.

He completely changed his outfit from his Starbucks uniform to his regular street clothes. He had a beanie on that covered his long black hair that seemed to look like a mullet. Lance watched the boy look at his fingers as he plucked the strings and sang along with the guitar.

Lance tried to listen in the song the boy was singing when he realized it wasn’t English. But that didn’t bother him. He continued to stare at the beautiful boy when he reached his high note causing the young girls to squeal. Lance could feel his mouth drop. He had never heard a voice as clear and soulful like that before right in front of his eyes. He also didn’t sound out of tune, he hit it exactly on pitch that made Lance extremely impressed with his vocal skill. When the boy continued on his song Lance could feel his heart beat faster when an idea had reached him…

The boy finished off his song with a few final chords of his guitar the girls clapped and gave him a small folded up paper. They giggled and then left. The boy smiled as he watched them run off then turned his eyes toward Lance. Lance still kept the same position of holding on his now cold latte with his mouth hanging open. The boy raised his eyebrows under his beanie. “Can I help you?” Without thinking, Lance pointed at him. “You. Come with me. Now.”

* * *

 

Shiro knocked on Pidge’s door. “Hey Pidge. You want to come and get dinner?” No response, only the muffled electronic sound effects thumping the door way. “Pidge!” Shiro opened the door to see a wide eyed Pidge hunched over her two Macs. “PIDGE!” screamed Shiro.

Pidge threw her headphones across the room. “WHAT DO YOU WANT?” she roared. She spun her chair around and Shiro stepped back. Pidge looked like she did not sleep in a million years despite she started to work on her own thing for about two hours. Shiro could see her eyes were becoming red and dry like they needed to be hydrated as soon as possible.

“Pidge, you need to drink and eat something. I was going to ask if you wanted to get dinner with me and Hunk.”

“But the company-”

“It’s alright, we can discuss it after we eat. Right now my stomach calls for some burgers, you want to go to The Habit?”

A loud thud came from the front door and a very loud voice. “EVERYONE IN THE RECORDING ROOM RIGHT NOW!”

Shiro, Pidge, and Hunk walked to the front of the company to see Lance dragging a random boy with a guitar behind him. “Lance!” Shiro exclaimed. He looked at Lance, then at the boy who smiled shyly, then back at Lance. “What is going on? And why did you drag this guy along?”

The boy with the guitar raised his hand and waved in reassurance. “Oh it’s okay I mean I agreed to anyway-”

“YOU NEED TO LISTEN TO THIS GUY THIS IS WHAT WE NEED!” Lance got to his knees and raised his arms to point at the now awkward embarrassed guitar boy. “THIS GUY IS THE ANSWER TO OUR PROBLEMS. OUR NEW FACE!” He leaned closer to the boy and whispered, “what’s your name again?”

“Keith.”

“Keith! He’s going to save our record label with a new sound and face! I mean look at him!” Keith was surprised when Lance pointed directly at his face. “This face is going to give us a new identity!” Keith chuckled embarrassingly as he turned away from Lance’s excitement.

Pidge groaned. “And how is that going to work Lance? You just met the guy!”

“Yeah but you need to hear him sing!” He got up and grabbed Keith’s arm. “Everyone into the recording room let’s go!”

He dragged Keith into the hallway with Hunk moving out of his way. After seeing Lance and Keith dash through the doors of the recording booth Hunk turned to Shiro and Pidge shrugging.

Shiro sighed and followed suit. “Let’s go and see what he wants.”

The three friends took their seats in the dark recording studio. Behind the glass Lance trying to make Keith as comfortable as possible by giving him one of the stools. He positioned the microphone as best as he could when he was stopped by Hunk from the intercom. “Lance! Be careful with that one! That one cost me a lot!”

“I know! I know!” Lance yelled at the glass knowing that they were all staring at him. “I’m just trying to give you guys the best show!”

Keith slid the headphones from his ears to his neck. “So uh, what am I supposed to do again?” He asked Lance.

Lance turned to him beaming. “Just play that same song you were playing earlier on the street!”

“But uh… it’s in Korean.”

“That doesn’t matter! Just play it! Play just like what you did earlier!” Lance flashed his teeth at him as he couldn’t contain his excitement any longer. “If you did what you did to me, you’re going to blow them away!” Keith cracked a small smile and his eyes got soft hearing that sweet compliment.

Lance turned to the glass and gave the crew a thumbs up. He hurried out of the booth to join the rest of the gang.

Shiro leaned into the microphone that was connected to the headphones Keith had around his neck. “So why don’t you tell us what you’re going to play.”

Keith realized he still had his headphones down and scrambled to put them on his head. “Sorry?”

“Introduce yourself and tell us what you’re going to play,” Shiro repeated.

“Uh right.” Keith cleared his throat and took a deep breath to get the nerves out. “My name is Keith. I’m a former jazz studies major and um…” he bit his lip and squinted his eyes in nervousness. “The song I’m going to play isn’t in English is that okay?”

Lance grabbed the microphone. “I just told you it doesn’t matter! They need to hear your voice!” Shiro pushed Lance away. “It’s fine. Let’s hear what you got.” “Alright! Well I’m going to be playing you one of my favorite songs. It’s a Korean indie song called The Manual by Eddy Kim. And the song is in the format of a ‘how-to’ on taking care of a girl or a loved one. Please enjoy.”

Keith leaned back and took another deep breath. There were a few moments of silence and then Keith started to strum on his guitar. Hunk got into the beat of the song already bopping his head a little as Keith already laid out the groove of the jazzy song. When Keith started singing, Pidge sat up and leaned closer into the glass, not taking her eyes off of the singer.

The way Keith sang wasn’t just about the quality of his voice, but it was also the way he performed. Lance could tell that it really was Keith’s favorite song of just how passionate he was getting into it. He closed his eyes and sang his heart out getting into the movement of the song. He looked like he was really enjoying singing and performing. As if he was pouring all of his love into giving instructions of how to love this girl. The voice was just as soulful as before, but the quality of the sound system made it sound just more clearer. Though it wasn’t in English, Lance could tell he was pronouncing all of his words extremely clearly. Lance even tried to imagine what it would sound like in English but he was too mesmerized by the beauty of Keith’s warm voice.

When Keith got to the same high note, Lance could see that Pidge’s mouth dropped. _“Oh my girl, oh my girl~”_ At the end of his melisma and a soft strum Lance could hear Hunk whisper “Wow.”

Keith finished the song with another beautiful melisma and let the guitar ring. He opened his eyes and looked at the recording crew. He laughed nervously and hugged his guitar closer. “So uh, how was that?”

Nobody moved from their position. Pidge still had her mouth wide open and Hunk looked like he wasn’t breathing. Lance also held his breath just from witnessing that incredible performance. Shiro pressed the intercom button like a stiff robot. He leaned into the microphone and blinked in amazement. “Wow um. Just wow.” Shiro wiped his face trying to get his act together. Lance didn’t know why Shiro looked so nervous but he couldn’t blame him that he was definitely taken away by such an angelic performance. Shiro leaned into the microphone again. “So when can you start?”

**Author's Note:**

> Melisma: Singing on a syllable over many notes. A lot of R&B pop artists use this (Beyonce is incredibly popular for this)  
> Song used in this chapter: [The Manual by Eddy Kim](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4mH2KvzUQ0)
> 
> If you guys know any really good English spoken indie music I'm open for suggestions!


End file.
